Legal Spotlight

Consider This Simple, Winning New Year’s Resolution

I am like most of you in that my New Year’sresolutions tend to focus on losing weight, getting fitter, eating healthier, and exhibiting more tolerance of certain annoying relatives. Holiday overindulgence, couch lethargy, family TV marathons, and beverage overservice combine to focus attention on these laudable personal goals for the forthcoming year. But what about a resolution that focuses on your business goals? What about a resolution that aims to enhance both the reputation and robustness of your business, NASBP, and the surety industry?

Well, I have a simple suggestion for you. Please consider a year-long 2018 resolution to actively sign up your industry stakeholder contacts to receive FREE digital subscriptions to NASBP’s stellar publications, Surety Bond Quarterly magazine and NASBP SmartBrief e-newsletter. That’s right: you can sign up FOR FREE contractors, subcontractors, design professionals, public owners, private owners, congresspersons and other political types, business owners, and anyone else who needs bonds, needs to know about bonds, might benefit from bonds, and/or misunderstands bonds. To sign up clients and colleagues for NASBP’s Surety Bond Quarterly digital magazine, go to http://bit.ly/nasbpmagazine. To sign up clients and colleagues for NASBP SmartBrief e-newsletter, go to http://smartbrief.com/nasbp.

Since producing the inaugural issue of Surety Bond Quarterly in summer 2014, NASBP staff has strived to educate its membership and the industry stakeholder community through its magazine about timely issues concerning contract surety bonds, construction, and commercial surety bonds. The articles include such diverse topics as government contract compliance, comparison of subcontractor bonds and subcontractor default insurance, liability under the False Claims Act, changes to and new standard form industry contracts (American Institute of Architects, ConsensusDocs, Design-Build Institute of America, and Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee), commercial surety bonds (notary bonds, court bonds, probate bonds, subdivision bonds, and public official bonds), international surety, updates on accounting and other financial issues, industry advocacy, use of drones in the construction industry, case law impacting contractors and sureties, succession planning, and public private partnerships, among others.

NASBP is fortunate that we have so many talented and productive attorneys serving on the NASBP Attorney Advisory Council and so many talented and productive CPAs serving on the NASBP CPA Advisory Council. These esteemed professionals have generously given of their expertise and time to provide NASBP with myriad articles (many appearing in issues of Surety Bond Quarterly), presentations, and other content on hot topics impacting the surety and construction industries. It’s easy to sign up folks to receive for FREE these NASBP publications.

For 2018 NASBP staff has committed to signing up our contacts to receive FREE digital subscriptions to Surety Bond Quarterly and NASBP Smartbrief; and we merrily encourage each of you consider doing the same. Such a New Year’s resolution would benefit your business, the surety industry, and NASBP; and it would not require any unpleasant deprivation on your part. Indeed, it would allow you to share your enthusiasm for suretyship with clients, potential clients, and business associates, enhancing your reputation and the reputation of the surety industry. Please send your “digital publication sign-up brags” to Kathy Hoffman, NASBP’s Director of Communications at khoffman@nasbp.org.

A happy holiday and a joyous new year to each of you!

The author of this article is Martha Perkins, General Counsel at NASBP. Martha Perkins can be reached at mperkins@nasbp.org or 202.686-3700.

This article is provided to NASBP members, affiliates, and associates solely for educational and informational purposes. It is not to be considered the rendering of legal advice in specific cases or to create a lawyer-client relationship. Readers are responsible for obtaining legal advice from their own counsels, and should not act upon any information contained in this article without such advice.